This invention relates to a method and apparatus for facilitating product changeover in the manufacture of fluff pads for disposable diapers and, more particularly, to the operation and construction of a forming drum.
Drum forming for making fluff pads is well known--see, for example, co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,293. Typically, however, product changover has represented a problem in that a significant amount of time was spent in removing the forming hood from over the drum and then laboriously unbolting each one of the pad forms. In addition, if the pad repeat length (distance between leading edge of each pad on the drum) is changed, the corresponding change in drum diameter necessitated replacement or readjustment of the seals on the forming hood to match the new diameter.
It is therefore an object of this invention to simplify the changeover process to reduce the burden on the machine operators and improve the production efficiency.
According to the invention, fluff from a delivery hood is drawn generally inwardly to a rotating drum having a plurality of circumferentially extending screen forms releasably mounted thereon and wherein the drum is shifted axially from under the hood and thereafter each of the screen forms is replaced sequentially with another plurality of different sized screen forms.
Other objects and details of the invention may be seen in the ensuing specification.